Industrial and commercial buildings and multi-site complexes may have tens of thousands of light fixtures of many different types, which require periodic maintenance and repair. Similarly, the maintenance and repair of light fixtures in a group of structures spread over a wide geographic area, for example a retail chain operation which may include hundreds of satellite stores in different territories, may be the responsibility of a single central office.
Presently the maintenance and repair of light fixtures in these types of situations is carried out on an ad hoc basis. A tenant or other occupant of the structure identifies a fixture in need of repair within a suite, or an employee of the building manager, for example a security guard, identifies a light fixture in need of repair in a suite or common area. The property manager is notified and issues a work order, which is delivered to the maintenance department and given to repair personnel to undertake the repair.
No particular consideration is given to carrying out light fixture maintenance or repairs in an orderly fashion, tracking the maintenance histories of light fixtures to identify latent problems or defects, or difficulties that repair personnel may encounter in effecting a repair such as problems identifying the circuit supplying power to a particular light fixture so that it can be deactivated to effect a repair. At best this results in an inefficient use of labour, and potentially parts inventory shortages. In other cases the property manager may end up paying the cost of repairing fixtures or components that are still under warranty, or may pay undue costs to maintain a defective fixture because the defect is not apparent without an overview of the repair history of the fixture.
The repair and maintenance of light fixtures in large commercial structures and complexes is thus presently a substantially random process. This leads to a number of disadvantages, including an inefficient use of repair personnel, haphazard replacement parts inventory management, inability to identify problematic fixtures and components, and attendant unnecessary costs associated with all of these. In a building or complex with thousands of light fixtures, these extra costs can be substantial.
Inventory control systems which utilize scanners such as bar code readers to record and track inventory are known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,113 issued Sep. 2, 1997 to Worger et al describes a working asset management system and method for tracking a working asset; Canadian patent No. 1,261.470 issued Sep. 26, 1989 to Markman describes a system and method for the control of dry cleaning articles; and Canadian patent No. 2,027,639 issued Jul. 4, 1995 to Inui et al teaches a parts supply inventory management system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,906 issued Sep. 8, 1998 to Pratt et al, which is incorporated herein by reference, teaches a method and system for tracking animal health histories and related information. In this system, animals such as cattle are tagged with a code related to records containing defining characteristics and a health history of each particular animal. A bar code scanner is used to scan the tag, which communicates the identity of the animal to a computer, to facilitate the retrieval of information regarding the health history of the animal.
However, all these systems involve mobile inventory. Optical scanners are used to identify items in the inventory, which can be matched with records for tracking purposes. But the inventory itself is movable, and the orderly management of the inventory is dependent upon this mobility.
Light fixtures present a peculiar problem, because they are immovable. Thus, an orderly management of light fixtures must take into account their fixed locations. Further, the wide variety of fixtures which may be maintained in any particular structure or complex raises parts inventory control problems, both in terms of stocking an adequate supply of parts and in terms of ensuring that the specific parts and components required for specific light fixtures in need of maintenance or repair are on hand. Additionally, efficient management of the light fixtures requires that the arrangement of electrical circuits controlling the various light fixtures be taken into account.